Vaishno Devi Medical College Students In Limbo As Jammu Kashmir BOPEE Rules Out Fresh Counselling

 

 

Jammu : Two weeks after the cancellation of the MBBS course at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence in Jammu, the future of 50 students who were at the receiving end of the controversy fueled by BJP-backed right-wing groups, remains in limbo as the Jammu and Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examinations (BOPEE) has said it cannot conduct fresh counselling for MBBS admissions. The board has said that supernumerary seats to those who were earlier given seats at the SMVDIME should be allocated "at the government level". The clarification by the BOPEE came in a letter to the Union territory's health and medical education department, which sought its intervention in the relocation of 50 MBBS students of the SMVDIME. Earlier this month, the National Medical Commission's Medical Assessment and Rating Board withdrew the letter of permission granted to SMVDIME for non-compliance with minimum standards. It had said that those admitted to the college during the counselling shall be accommodated in other institutions in Jammu and Kashmir as supernumerary seats. Sangharsh Samiti, a recently formed conglomerate of right-wing organisations backed by the BJP, has been spearheading an agitation in Jammu since November last year, demanding cancellation of admissions to the college and seeking reservation of seats exclusively for students professing faith in Mata Vaishno Devi. Among the inaugural batch of 50 students at the SMVDIME, 42 were Muslims -- mostly from Kashmir -- along with seven Hindu students from Jammu and one Sikh candidate, a composition that triggered demands for scrapping the admissions and reserving all seats for Hindu students. In a letter to the Jammu and Kashmir Health and Medical Education Department, the BOPEE said, "I am directed to submit that the matter was placed before the Board for detailed deliberations and the Board has observed that it is constrained to conduct any new counselling for the year 2025-26 as it is not mandated go beyond the counseling schedule issued by Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), MoHFW, New Delhi for currert academic session." It said that under the directions of MCC, data of 1,410 MBBS candidates, including 50 candidates of SMVDIME under question, has been updated on their portal on the last date of joining on December 31, 2025. "Further, the creation and allotment of supernumerary seats does not fall within the ambit of J-K BOPEE." Therefore, the fresh allocation of supernumerary seats to these candidates who were earlier allotted SMVDIME be made at the government level in consultation with the National Medical Commission and respective medical colleges in Jammu and Kashmir, the letter said. Earlier, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah asserted that the education of these 50 students will not be allowed to suffer, and his government will accommodate them in other institutions through supernumerary seats. "It is our legal responsibility to accommodate them. We will adjust them by creating supernumerary seats in colleges close to their homes so that their education does not suffer," he had said.